Medicine: Healthy Year

The U.S. had never boasted rosier cheeks. Last week the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Co. reported that the death rate this year is the lowest
and the number of births the highest in the nation's history.

In 1947's first six months, the death rate among Metropolitan
policyholders (not counting deaths from war wounds) dropped to a record
low of 7.6 per 1,000 3.8% less than last year. There were fewer
deaths from most of the major diseases (outstanding exception: cancer).
There was also a sharp decline in deaths by violence (suicides,
murders, accidents). The report's forecast: thanks to prosperity and
medical progress, 1947...